The Theme of Clothing in Shakespeares Cymbeline - Essay Example

?The Theme of Clothing in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline Shakespeare used fashion and costuming in many subtle ways to illustrate the traits of many of his characters and to demonstrate the emotions, moods and inner thoughts of those characters. I believe that Shakespeare felt however that when a person’s outward appearance changes, the person remains the same at heart. Other characters for the most part respond to the inner virtues and faults of a character in much the same way even when misled about that character’s identity, and I believe Shakespeare intends for the audience to react in the same way. The few characters that treat a disguised character differently are often shown to be shallow and foolish for judging a person at surface value. After putting on Posthumus’ clothes in a futile attempt to lure his wife, Cloten declares “How fit his garments serve me! Why should his mistress, who was made by him that made the tailor, not be fit to?” (4.1 1-4), he underlines the importance of one of Shakespeare’s primary themes in Cymbeline: clothing.Cloten’s continuous comparison of the tailor to a creator, most likely a rude joke about Posthumus, points to the complexity ingrained in Shakespeare’s portrayal of clothing, disguise, and costume. Out rightly, the demureness of the play is founded on several fronts. In some cases it can be found within the language used by the characters, bringing out the significance of clothing to symbolize status. In other cases, such as is the case with Imogen’s anger towards Clotenor Posthumus’s changing commitments on the battle front, a character’s dress outwardly displays the characters personalities and manipulates their actions. At points in the play, misleading masquerades move characters to rage and violence.Examples of this are Posthumus’s decision to have Imogen murdered and Cloten’s plan to rape Imogen, in other instances it allows them to see things more clearly as is the case with the battle episodes. The changing of clothes socially derogates characters and moves them towards improved self-awareness and self-fulfillment, most importantly, disguise appears as a not so shrouding cloak that, while concealing the identity of the characters, fails to mask their actual natures. Clothing and disguise function as a way for the characters to conceal and simultaneously reveal themselves to the audience. The frequency of language pertaining to garments is an obviousindication of the significance that clothing has in illustrating the themes of the play. Even before the introduction of disguises, Imogen ridicules Cloten with statements and metaphors relating to clothing. After Cloten intently seeks audience with Imogen by banging on her door, and consequently referring to himself as a gentleman, a Lady declares “That’s more/Than some whose tailors are as dear as yours Can justly boast of” (2.3 77-79). This part of the play illustrates the uselessness of Cloten’s character, this is quite apparent from the mockery he receives from the servant of Imogen’s court. By deriding his garb, the woman servant challenges Cloten’s ego and his hard held sense of entitlement. Cloten’s response is as scathing, and he chooses to further the clothing debate by drawing a comparison between dress and character, referring to Posthumus as “A hilding for a livery, a squire’s cloth/A pantler-not so eminent “ (1. 120-121).Cloten, who is widely seen and referred to as an idiot, shows he is not without wit and possesses some skill in rhetoric, if not virtue, by redirecting the servant woman’s debate and continuing to make a point on Posthumus’ apparent insufficiency for the future throne. Imogen, however, seems to close this debate by furthering the metaphorical comparison on garments to include an abstract example, she holds that Posthumus’ “Meanest garment…is dearer in my respect than all the hairs above thee” (2.3 133-135). In conclusion, Imogen alters the discussion of clothing to oust Cloten. At the end of the scene, it becomes apparent that the aim of the scene was to bring out Cloten’s literal view on Imogen’s insult, as Cloten fixates on this comment and later donsPosthumus’s garb in a most psychotic fashion as he proceeds to pursue a plan for murder and rapine. In another section of the play, clothing language is taken as an expression of inner value. As Siemon notes, the differences in one’s clothing are closely linked to one’s social status and their rank in society (Siemon 60). This is first exemplified by Pisanio and Imogen, at the point when Pisanio first reveals to Imogen the actual reason for him bringing her Wales: that Posthumus had ordered him to kill her. Her lamentation is firstespressed in terms of dress “I am stale, a garment out of fashion” (3.4 51). Her lament reveals several aspects of her true character. First, it deflates her ego and lowers her inner value. Her confidence can be attributed more to arrogance as opposed to pride, and to a sense of entitlement, as is shown by her statement, “I am richer than to hang by the’ walls”(3.4 52).Jupiter’s words later in the play, “whom best I love, I cross” (5.4 71), though these words are meant for Posthumus, they can be extended to Imogen to denote her perceptible fall from grace. Even if she yields greater value as a person, the circumstances at the time indicate a more shallow nature, as, for example, she is humiliated by her subsequent donning of the doublet and hat. As Hunt points out, this new adornment is necessary as it helps her feel a more complete person, apparently, not having the hat makes her feel inadequate as she still cannot fit into her new role as a man. In Hunt’s words, it becomes a declaration of a mannish fitment which transforms her into a more complete person (Hunt 80). In another use of dress, clothing is used to metaphorically refer to a commodity. When Imogen refers to herself as “stale” and “out of fashion” (3.4 51),she rather objectifies herself, and she does so immediately following reference to a “jay of Italy”(3.4 49), a whore, which would also be an objectified woman and a commodity, in a most extreme sense. This reference to an individual as a commodity is quite relevant in light of the wager plot involving Imogen. Also, more obviously, Imogen’s self-association of her status,likened to a garment, sets upher final thoughts, that she “must be ripped. To pieces” (3.4 53).While making this statement, she also unconsciously indicates the required course of action that she must take in order to start anew. Identifying the necessary course of action presents the only practical way through which she will restore her inner worth and reconstruct her values once again. Throughout the play, it is evident that clothing has very immediate links to identity. This observation is sufficiently illustrated by Imogen, especially when she transforms into Fidele. This transformation is orchestrated by Pisanio, after a prior suggestion that Imogen commit suicide. However, after some thought it seems more reasonable to transform into a boy-page with a harbored desire to visit Rome.The transformative effect of Imogen wearing the disguise is accentuated by Pisanio’s suggestion to “forget to be a woman” (3.4 155). In this statement Pisanio urges her to transform her character. Pisanio urges her to forget about Posthumus betrayal, and instead focus on her new status which requires her to illustrate patience and obedience, as a page boyand shed her princessly command. Here the changing of her garb is accompanied by a dramatic change in status. The theme of meaning centered around the characters’ clothing continues with Posthumus during the battle scene. At the start of Act 5, Posthumus grasps the bloody clothsent by Pisano as proof of Imogen’s murder. In anspeech to this cloth, representing the apparently lost Imogen, Posthumusdeclares, “I’ll keep thee, for I once wished/ Thou shouldst be colored thus “(5.1 1-2). This marks the start of a lengthy soliloquy, in this scene, Posthumusengages himself in a lengthy deliberation on the ongoing war between Britain and Rome. He sees the violence as a reflection of his violence toward Imogen, which led to Imogen’s assumed death. At the same time Posthumus uses his garb to denote his changing allegiance. Posthumus declares, “Britain, I have killed thy mistress; peace I’ll give no wound to thee… I’ll disrobe me/ Of these Italian weeds and suit myself as does a British peasant” (5.1 20-24). Desperate to rid himself of the guilt he feels over Imogen’s death, and feeling a masochistic need for self-punishment, he sheds the elaborate military uniform of Roman gentry and dons the plain garb of a British peasant, denoting both a change in class and his refusal to do further harm to Briton. In this regard, Posthumus’suse of the worddisrobe connotes humility, and his choice of peasant garb expresses a certain virtue of nationalist pride. In essence, Posthumus takes up a Peasant’s character, this is supposedly to assume the same status as his inner self. At thispoint,Posthumus is morally impoverished as he carries a guilty heart. Even though this part of the play does not present the lowest point for Posthumus, it illustrates his subsequent vindication. Posthumus continues with his reference to his clothing when he says, “To shame the guise o’th world, I will begin/The fashion: less without and more within” (5.1 32-33). These lines illustrate one of Shakespeare’s main points in this play, that a man’s outward appearance does not make him virtuous, or lacking virtue, it is his inner character which may be noble, regardless of his dress – or his social class. Posthumus is shedding the wealth and pretense without, in search of the development of wealth of character and sincerity within, and, much like Imogen who feels she must be “ripped”, Posthumus feels he must be punished to be remade anew and achieve inner value. This drive informs his decision to march into the battle front. True to his statement, Posthumus approaches the battle front with a desire to suffer for his crimes. This desire is further inacted when, at the end of the battle, with the Britons victorious, Posthumus changes his disguise once again to a Roman uniform so the Britons will take him prisoner. The role of imagery pertaining to clothing, the symbolic meaning behind the dress of characters in Cymbeline, is quite significant, extensive, and rich in metaphor, and yet does not seem to be as commonly highlighted by literary critics as other topics. The theme is laced throughout the play in a number of other scenes and in many more instances than the significant few I have highlighted. With constant repeating references to fashion and dress, this theme is strikingly apparent in this play, when the reader looks closely for it in Shakespeare’s choices of words. Works Cited Baker, Susan. “Personating Persons: Rethinking Shakespearean Disguises.”ShakespeareQuarterly.Vol. 43, No. 3, Autumn 1992. Washington D.C.: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1992. Print. Hunt, Maurice. “The “Fittings” of Cymbeline.”South Central Review.Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 1999: 73-87. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1999. Print. Siemon, James Edward. "Noble Virtue in ‘Cymbeline’."Shakespeare Survey Volume 29: Shakespeare's Last Plays. Ed. Kenneth Muir.Cambridge University Press, 1976.Cambridge Collections Online.Cambridge University Press.02 December 2011 DOI:10.1017/CCOL0521212278.006.Web. Read More